Richard F. Burton

The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night

It is related that there was, in tide of yore and in times and
years long gone before, at Damascus of Syria, a Caliph known as Abd
al-Malik bin Marwan, the fifth of the Ommiade house. As this
Commander of the Faithful was seated one day in his palace,
conversing with his Sultans and Kings and the Grandees of his
empire, the talk turned upon the legends of past peoples and the
traditions of our lord Solomon, David’s son (on the twain be
peace!), and on that which Allah Almighty had bestowed on him of
lordship and dominion over men and Jinn and birds and beasts and
reptiles and the wind and other created things; and quoth the
Caliph, “Of a truth we hear from those who forewent us that
the Lord (extolled and exalted be He!) vouchsafed unto none the
like of that which He vouchsafed unto our lord Solomon and that he
attained unto that whereto never attained other than he, in that he
was wont to imprison Jinns and Marids and Satans in cucurbites of
copper and to stop them with lead and seal105 them with his
ring.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased saying her permitted say.

104 This is a true
“City of Brass.” (Nuhás asfar=yellow copper), as we
learn in Night dcclxxii. It is situated in the
“Maghrib” (Mauritania), the region of magic and
mystery; and the idea was probably suggested by the grand Roman
ruins which rise abruptly from what has become a sandy waste.
Compare with this tale “The City of Brass” (Night
cclxxii.). In Egypt Nuhás is vulg. pronounced Nihás.

105 The Bresl.
Edit. adds that the seal-ring was of stamped stone and iron, copper
and lead. I have borrowed copiously from its vol. vi. pp. 343, et
seq.

When it was the Five Hundred and Sixty-seventh Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
Caliph Abd al-Malik bin Marwan sat conversing with his Grandees
concerning our lord Solomon, and these noted what Allah had
bestowed upon him of lordship and dominion, quoth the Commander of
the Faithful, “Indeed he attained unto that whereto never
attained other than he, in that he was wont to imprison Jinns and
Marids and Satans in cucurbites of copper and stop them with lead
and seal them with his ring.” Then said Talib bin Sahl (who
was a seeker after treasures and had books that discovered to him
hoards and wealth hidden under the earth), “O Commander of
the Faithful,—Allah make thy dominion to endure and exalt thy
dignity here and hereafter!—my father told me of my
grandfather, that he once took ship with a company, intending for
the island of Sikiliyah or Sicily, and sailed until there arose
against them a contrary wind, which drove them from their course
and brought them, after a month, to a great mountain in one of the
lands of Allah the Most High, but where that land was they wot not.
Quoth my grandfather:—‘This was in the darkness of the
night and as soon as it was day, there came forth to us, from the
caves of the mountain, folk black of colour and naked of body, as
they were wild beasts, understanding not one word of what was
addressed to them; nor was there any of them who knew Arabic, save
their King who was of their own kind. When he saw the ship, he came
down to it with a company of his followers and saluting us, bade us
welcome and questioned us of our case and our faith. We told him
all concerning ourselves and he said, ‘Be of good cheer for
no harm shall befal you.’ And when we, in turn, asked them of
their faith, we found that each was of one of the many creeds
prevailing before the preaching of Al–Islam and the mission
of Mohammed, whom may Allah bless and keep! So my shipmates
remarked, We wot not what thou sayest.’ Then quoth the King,
‘No Adam-son hath ever come to our land before you: but fear
not, and rejoice in the assurance of safety and of return to your
own country.’ Then he entertained us three days, feeding us
on the flesh of birds and wild beasts and fishes, than which they
had no other meat; and, on the fourth day, he carried us down to
the beach, that we might divert ourselves by looking upon the
fisher-folk. There we saw a man casting his net to catch fish, and
presently he pulled them up and behold, in them was a cucurbite of
copper, stopped with lead and sealed with the signet of Solomon,
son of David, on whom be peace! He brought the vessel to land and
broke it open, when there came forth a smoke, which rose a-twisting
blue to the zenith, and we heard a horrible voice, saying, ‘I
repent! I repent! Pardon, O Prophet of Allah! I will never return
to that which I did aforetime.’ Then the smoke became a
terrible Giant frightful of form, whose head was level with the
mountain-tops, and he vanished from our sight, whilst our hearts
were well-nigh torn out for terror; but the blacks thought nothing
of it. Then we returned to the King and questioned him of the
matter; whereupon quoth he, ‘Know that this was one of the
Jinns whom Solomon, son of David, being wroth with them, shut up in
these vessels and cast into the sea, after stopping the mouths with
melted lead. Our fishermen ofttimes, in casting their nets, bring
up such bottles, which being broken open, there come forth of them
Jinnis who, deeming that Solomon is still alive and can pardon
them, make their submission to him and say, I repent, O Prophet of
Allah!’” The Caliph marvelled at Talib’s story
and said, “Glory be to God! Verily, to Solomon was given a
mighty dominion.” Now al-Nábighah al-Zubyání106 was present, and he
said, “Talib hath spoken soothly as is proven by the saying
of the All-wise, the Primæval One,

‘And Solomon, when Allah to him said,
‘Rise, be thou Caliph,
rule with righteous sway:
Honour obedience for obeying thee;
And who rebels imprison him
for aye’

Wherefore he used to put them in copper-bottles and cast them
into the sea.” The poet’s words seemed good to the
Caliph, and he said, “By Allah, I long to look upon some of
these Solomonic vessels, which must be a warning to whoso will be
warned.” “O Commander of the Faithful,” replied
Talib, “it is in thy power to do so, without stirring abroad.
Send to thy brother Abd al-Aziz bin Marwán, so he may write to Músá
bin Nusayr,107 governor of the Maghrib or Morocco,
bidding him take horse thence to the mountains whereof I spoke and
fetch thee therefrom as many of such cucurbites as thou hast a mind
to; for those mountains adjoin the frontiers of his
province.” The Caliph approved his counsel and said
“Thou hast spoken sooth, O Talib, and I desire that, touching
this matter, thou be my messenger to Musa bin Nusayr; wherefore
thou shalt have the White Flag108 and all thou hast a mind to of monies
and honour and so forth; and I will care for thy family during
shine absence.” “With love and gladness, O Commander of
the Faithful!” answered Talib. “Go, with the blessing
of Allah and His aid,” quoth the Caliph, and bade write a
letter to his brother, Abd al-Aziz, his viceroy in Egypt, and
another to Musa bin Nusayr, his viceroy in North Western Africa,
bidding him go himself in quest of the Solomonic bottles, leaving
his son to govern in his stead. Moreover, he charged him to engage
guides and to spare neither men nor money, nor to be remiss in the
matter as he would take no excuse. Then he sealed the two letters
and committed them to Talib bin Sahl, bidding him advance the royal
ensigns before him and make his utmost speed and he gave him
treasure and horsemen and footmen, to further him on his way, and
made provision for the wants of his household during his absence.
So Talib set out and arrived in due course at Cairo.109—And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted
say.

106 As this was a
well-known pre-Islamitic bard, his appearance here is decidedly
anachronistic, probably by intention.

107 The first
Moslem conqueror of Spain whose lieutenant, Tárik, the gallant and
unfortunate, named Gibraltar (Jabal al- Tarik).

108 The colours of
the Banú Umayyah (Ommiade) Caliphs were white, of the Banú Abbás
(Abbasides) black, and of the Fatimites green. Carrying the royal
flag denoted the generalissimo or plenipotentiary.

109 i.e. Old Cairo,
or Fustat: the present Cairo was then a Coptic village founded on
an old Egyptian settlement called Lui- Tkeshroma, to which belonged
the tanks on the hill and the great well, Bir Yusuf, absurdly
attributed to Joseph the Patriarch. Lui is evidently the origin of
Levi and means a high priest (Brugsh ii. 130) and his son’s
name was Roma.

When it was the Five Hundred and Sixty-eighth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Talib bin
Sahl set out with his escort and crossed the desert country between
Syria and Egypt, where the Governor came out to meet him and
entreated him and his company with high honour whilst they tarried
with him. Then he gave them a guide to bring them to the
Sa’íd or Upper Egypt, where the Emir Musa had his
abiding-place; and when the son of Nusayr heard of Talib’s
coming, he went forth to meet him and rejoiced in him. Talib gave
him the Caliph’s letter, and he took it reverently and,
laying it on his head, cried, “I hear and I obey the Prince
of the Faithful.” Then he deemed it best to assemble his
chief officers and when all were present he acquainted them with
the contents of the Caliph’s letter and sought counsel of
them how he should act. “O Emir,” answered they,
“if thou seek one who shall guide thee to the place summon
the Shaykh ‘Abd al-Samad, ibn ‘Abd al-Kuddús, al-
Samúdí;110 for he is a man of varied knowledge,
who hath travelled much and knoweth by experience all the seas and
wastes and words and countries of the world and the inhabitants and
wonders thereof; wherefore send thou for him and he will surely
guide thee to thy desire.” So Musa sent for him, and behold,
he was a very ancient man shot in years and broken down with lapse
of days. The Emir saluted him and said, “O Shaykh Abd
al-Samad, our lord the Commander of the Faithful, Abd al-Malik bin
Marwan’ hath commanded me thus and thus. I have small
knowledge of the land wherein is that which the Caliph desireth;
but it is told me that thou knowest it well and the ways thither.
Wilt thou, therefore, go with me and help me to accomplish the
Caliph’s need? So it please Allah the Most High, thy trouble
and travail shall not go waste.” Replied the Shaykh, “I
hear and obey the bidding of the Commander of the Faithful; but
know, O Emir, that the road thither is long and difficult and the
ways few.” “How far is it?” asked Musa, and the
Shaykh answered, “It is a journey of two years and some
months going and the like returning; and the way is full of
hardships and terrors and things wondrous and marvellous. Now thou
art a champion of the Faith111 and our country is hard by that of the
enemy; and peradventure the Nazarenes may come out upon us in shine
absence; wherefore it behoveth thee to leave one to rule thy
government in thy stead.” “It is well,” answered
the Emir and appointed his son Hárún Governor during his absence,
requiring the troops to take the oath of fealty to him and bidding
them obey him in all he should com mend. And they heard his words
and promised obedience. Now this Harun was a man of great prowess
and a renowned warrior and a doughty knight, and the Shaykh Abd
al-Samad feigned to him that the place they sought was distant but
four months’ journey along the shore of the sea, with
camping-places all the way, adjoining one another, and grass and
springs, adding, “Allah will assuredly make the matter easy
to us through thy blessing, O Lieutenant of the Commander of the
Faithful!” Quoth the Emir Musa, “Knowest thou if any of
the Kings have trodden this land before us?”; and quoth the
Shaykh, “Yes, it belonged aforetime to Darius the Greek, King
of Alexandria.” But he said to Musa privily, “O Emir,
take with thee a thousand camels laden with victual and store of
gugglets.”112 The Emir asked, “And what shall
we do with these?”, and the Shaykh answered. “On our
way is the desert of Kayrwán or Cyrene, the which is a vast wold
four days’ journey long, and lacketh water; nor therein doth
sound of voice ever sound nor is soul at any time to be seen.
Moreover, there bloweth the Simoon113 and other hot winds called
Al–Juwayb, which dry up the water-skins; but if the water be
in gugglets, no harm can come to it.” “Right,”
said Musa and sending to Alexandria, let bring thence great plenty
of gugglets. Then he took with him his Wazir and two thousand
cavalry, clad in mail cap-á-pie and set out, without other to guide
them but Abd al-Samad who forewent them, riding on his hackney. The
party fared on diligently, now passing through inhabited lands,
then ruins and anon traversing frightful words and thirsty wastes
and then mountains which spired high in air; nor did they leave
journeying a whole year’s space till, one morning, when the
day broke, after they had travelled all night, behold, the Shaykh
found himself in a land he knew not and said, “There is no
Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the
Great!” Quoth the Emir, “What is to do, O
Shaykh?”; and he answered, saying, “By the Lord of the
Ka’abah, we have wandered from our road!” “How
cometh that?” asked Musa, and Abd al-Samad replied,
“The stars were overclouded and I could not guide myself by
them.” “Where on God’s earth are we now?”
asked the Emir, and the Shaykh answered, “I know not; for I
never set eyes on this land till this moment.” Said Musa,
“Guide us back to the place where we went astray”, but
the other, “I know it no more.” Then Musa, “Let
us push on; haply Allah will guide us to it or direct us aright of
His power.” So they fared on till the hour of noon-prayer,
when they came to a fair champaign, and wide and level and smooth
as it were the sea when calm, and presently there appeared to them,
on the horizon some great thing, high and black, in whose midst was
as it were smoke rising to the confines of the sky. They made for
this, and stayed not in their course till they drew near thereto,
when, lo! it was a high castle, firm of foundations and great and
gruesome, as it were a towering mountain, builded all of black
stone, with frowning crenelles and a door of gleaming China steel,
that dazzled the eyes and dazed the wits. Round about it were a
thousand steps and that which appeared afar off as it were smoke
was a central dome of lead an hundred cubits high. When the Emir
saw this, he marvelled thereat with exceeding marvel and how this
place was void of inhabitants; and the Shaykh, after he had
certified himself thereof, said, “There is no god but the God
and Mohammed is the Apostle of God!” Quoth Musa, “I
hear thee praise the Lord and hallow Him, and meseemeth thou
rejoicest.” “O Emir,” answered Abd al-Samad,
“Rejoice, for Allah (extolled and exalted be He!) hath
delivered us from the frightful words and thirsty wastes.”
“How knowest thou that?” said Musa, and the other,
“I know it for that my father told me of my grandfather that
he said, ‘We were once journeying in this land and, straying
from the road, we came to this palace and thence to the City of
Brass; between which and the place thou seekest is two full
months’ travel; but thou must take to the sea-shore and leave
it not, for there be watering-places and wells and camping-grounds
established by King Zú al-Karnayn Iskandar who, when he went to the
conquest of Mauritania, found by the way thirsty deserts and wastes
and wilds and dug therein water-pits and built cisterns.’
“ Quoth Musa, “Allah rejoice thee with good
news!” and quoth the Shaykh, “Come, let us go look upon
yonder palace and its marvels, for it is an admonition to whose
will be admonished.” So the Emir went up to the palace, with
the Shaykh and his officers, and coming to the gate, found it open.
Now this gate was builded with lofty columns and porticoes whose
walls and ceilings were inlaid with gold and silver and precious
stones; and there led up to it flights of steps, among which were
two wide stairs of coloured marble, never was seen their like; and
over the doorway was a tablet whereon were graven letters of gold
in the old ancient Ionian character. “O Emir,” asked
the Shaykh, “Shall I read?”; and Musa answered,
“Read and God bless thee!; for all that betideth us in this
journey dependeth upon thy blessing.” So the Shaykh, who was
a very learned man and versed in all tongues and characters, went
up to the tablet and read whatso was thereon and it was verse like
this,

“The signs that here their mighty works portray
Warn us that
all must tread the self-same way:
O thou who standest in this stead to hear
Tidings of folk, whose power hath passed for aye,
Enter this palace-gate and ask the news
Of greatness fallen into dust and clay:
Death has destroyed them and dispersed their might
And in the dust they lost their rich display;
As had they only set their burdens down
To rest awhile, and then had rode away.”

When the Emir Musa heard these couplets, he wept till he lost
his senses and said, “There is no god but the God, the
Living, the Eternal, who ceaseth not!” Then he entered the
palace and was confounded at its beauty and the goodliness of its
construction. He diverted himself awhile by viewing the pictures
and images therein, till he came to another door, over which also
were written verses, and said to the Shaykh, “Come read me
these!” So he advanced and read as follows,

“Under these domes how many a company
Halted of old and fared
with-outen stay:
See thou what might displays on other wights
Time with his shifts which could such lords waylay:
They shared together what they gathered
And left their joys and
fared to Death-decay:
What joys they joyed! what food they ate! and now
In dust they’re eaten, for the worm a prey.”

At this the Emir Musa wept bitter tears; and the world waxed
yellow before his eyes and he said, “Verily, we were created
for a mighty matter!”114 Then they proceeded to explore the
palace and found it desert and void of living thing, its courts
desolate and dwelling places waste laid. In the midst stood a lofty
pavilion with a dome rising high in air, and about it were four
hundred tombs, builded of yellow marble. The Emir drew near unto
these and behold, amongst them was a great tomb, wide and long; and
at its head stood a tablet of white marble, whereon were graven
these couplets,

“How oft have I fought! and how many have slain!
How much have
I witnessed of blessing and bane!
How much have I eaten! how much have I drunk!
How oft have I hearkened to singing-girl’s strain!
How much have I bidden! how oft have forbid!
How many a castle
and castellain
I have sieged and have searched, and the cloistered maids
In the depths of its walls for my captives were ta’en!
But of ignorance sinned I to win me the meeds
Which won proved
naught and brought nothing of gain:
Then reckon thy reck’ning, O man, and be wise
Ere the goblet of
death and of doom thou shalt drain;
For yet but a little the dust on thy head
They shall strew, and
thy life shall go down to the dead.”

The Emir and his companions wept; then, drawing near unto the
pavilion, they saw that it had eight doors of sandal-wood, studded
with nails of gold and stars of silver and inlaid with all manner
precious stones. On the first door were written these verses,

“What I left, I left it not for nobility of soul,
But through
sentence and decree that to every man are dight.
What while I lived happy, with a temper haught and high,
My hoarding-place defending like a lion in the fight,
I took no rest, and greed of gain forbad me give a grain
Of mustard seed to save from the fires of Hell my sprite,
Until stricken on a day, as with arrow, by decree
Of the Maker,
the Fashioner, the Lord of Might and Right.
When my death was appointed, my life I could not keep
By the many of my stratagems, my cunning and my sleight:
My troops I had collected availed me not, and none
Of my friends and of my neighbours had power to mend my plight:
Through my life I was weaned in journeying to death
In stress or in solace, in joyance or despight:
So when money-bags are bloated, and dinar unto dinar
Thou addest, all may leave thee with fleeting of the night:
And the driver of a camel and the digger of a grave115
Are
what shine heirs shall bring ere the morning dawneth bright:
And on Judgment Day alone shalt thou stand before thy Lord,
Overladen with thy sins and thy crimes and shine affright:
Let the world not seduce thee with lurings, but behold
What measure to thy family and neighbours it hath doled.”

When Musa heard these verses, he wept with such weeping that he
swooned away; then, coming to himself, he entered the pavilion and
saw therein a long tomb, awesome to look upon, whereon was a tablet
of China steel and Shaykh Abd al-Samad drew near it and read this
inscription: “In the name of Ever-lasting Allah, the
Never-beginning, the Never-ending; in the name of Allah who
begetteth not nor is He begot and unto whom the like is not; in the
name of Allah the Lord of Majesty and Might; in the name of the
Living One who to death is never dight!”—And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

110 I cannot but
suspect that this is a clerical error for
“Al–Samanhúdi,” a native of Samanhúd
(Wilkinson’s “Semenood”) in the Delta on the
Damietta branch, the old Sebennytus (in Coptic Jem-nuti=Jem the
God), a town which has produced many distinguished men in Moslem
times. But there is also a Samhúd lying a few miles down stream
from Denderah and, as its mounds prove, it is an ancient site.

115 The camel
carries the Badawi’s corpse to the cemetery which is often
distant: hence to dream of a camel is an omen of death.

When it was the Five Hundred and Sixty-ninth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Shaykh Abd
al-Samad, having read the aforesaid, also found the following,
“O thou who comest to this place, take warning by that which
thou seest of the accidents of Time and the vicissitudes of Fortune
and be not deluded by the world and its pomps and vanities and
fallacies and falsehoods and vain allurements, for that it is
flattering, deceitful end treacherous, and the things thereof are
but a loan to us which it will borrow back from all borrowers. It
is like unto the dreams of the dreamer and the sleep-visions of the
sleeper or as the mirage of the desert, which the thirsty take for
water;116 and Satan maketh it fair for men even
unto death These are the ways of the world; wherefore put not thou
thy trust therein neither incline thereto, for it bewrayeth him who
leaneth upon it and who committeth himself thereunto in his
affairs. Fall not thou into its snares neither take hold upon its
skirts, but be warned by my example. I possessed four thou sand bay
horses and a haughty palace, and I had to wife a thou sand
daughters of kings, high-bosomed maids, as they were moons: I was
blessed with a thousand sons as they were fierce lions, and I abode
a thousand years, glad of heart and mind, and I amassed treasures
beyond the competence of all the Kings of the regions of the earth,
deeming that delight would still endure to me. But there fell on me
unawares the Destroyer of delights and the Sunderer of societies,
the Desolator of domiciles and the Spoiler of inhabited spots, the
Murtherer of great and small, babes and children and mothers, he
who hath no ruth on the poor for his poverty, or feareth the King
for all his bidding or forbidding. Verily, we abode safe and secure
in this palace, till there descended upon us the judgment of the
Lord of the Three Worlds, Lord of the Heavens, and Lord of the
Earths, the vengeance of the Manifest Truth117 overtook us, when there
died of us every day two, till a great company of us had perished.
When I saw that destruction had entered our dwellings and had homed
with us and in the sea of deaths had drowned us, I summoned a
writer and bade him indite these verses and instances and
admonitions, the which I let grave, with rule and compass, on these
doors and tablets and tombs. Now I had an army of a thousand
thousand bridles, men of warrior mien with forearms strong and
keen, armed with spears and mail-coats sheen and swords that gleam;
so I bade them don their long-hanging hauberks and gird on their
biting blades and mount their high-mettled steeds and level their
dreadful lances; and whenas there fell on us the doom of the Lord
of heaven and earth, I said to them, ‘Ho, all ye soldiers and
troopers, can ye avail to ward off that which is fallen on me from
the Omnipotent King?’ But troopers and soldiers availed not
unto this and said, ‘How shall we battle with Him to whom no
chamberlain barreth access, the Lord of the door which hath no
doorkeeper?’ Then quoth I to them, ‘Bring me my
treasures’ Now I had in my treasuries a thousand cisterns in
each of which were a thousand quintals118 of red gold and the like of white
silver, besides pearls and jewels of all kinds and other things of
price, beyond the attainment of the kings of the earth. So they did
that and when they had laid all the treasure in my presence, I said
to them, ‘Can ye ransom me with all this treasure or buy me
one day of life therewith?’ But they could not! So they
resigned themselves to fore-ordained Fate and fortune and I
submitted to the judgment of Allah, enduring patiently that which
he decreed unto me of affliction, till He took my soul and made me
to dwell in my grave. And if thou ask of my name, I am Kúsh, the
son of Shaddád son of Ád the Greater.” And upon the tablets
were engraved these lines,

“An thou wouldst know my name, whose day is done
With shifts of
time and chances ‘neath the sun,
Know I am Shaddád’s son, who ruled mankind
And o’er all earth
upheld dominion!
All stubborn peoples abject were to me;
And Shám to Cairo and to Adnanwone;119
I reigned in glory conquering many kings;
And peoples feared my
mischief every one.
Yea, tribes and armies in my hand I saw;
The world all dreaded
me, both friends and fone.
When I took horse, I viewed my numbered troops,
Bridles on neighing steeds a million.
And I had wealth that none could tell or count,
Against misfortune treasuring all I won;
Fain had I bought my life with all my wealth,
And for a moment’s space my death to shun;
But God would naught save what His purpose willed;
So from my brethren cut I ‘bode alone:
And Death, that sunders man, exchanged my lot
To pauper hut from grandeur’s mansion
When found I all mine actions gone and past
Wherefor I’m
pledged120 and by my sin undone.
Then fear, O man, who by a brink dost range,
The turns of Fortune and the chance of Change.”

The Emir Musa was hurt to his heart and loathed his life for
what he saw of the slaughtering-places of the folk; and, as they
went about the highways and byeways of the palace, viewing its
sitting-chambers and pleasaunces, behold they came upon a table of
yellow onyx, upborne on four feet of juniper-wood,121 and there-on these
words graven, “At this table have eaten a thousand kings
blind of the right eye and a thousand blind of the left and yet
other thousand sound of both eyes, all of whom have departed the
world and have taken up their sojourn in the tombs and the
catacombs.” All this the Emir wrote down and left the palace,
carrying off with him naught save the table aforesaid. Then he
fared on with his host three days’ space, under the guidance
of the Shaykh Abd al-Samad, till they came to a high hill, whereon
stood a horseman of brass. In his hand he held a lance with a broad
head, in brightness like blinding leven, whereon was graven,
“O thou that comest unto me, if thou know not the way to the
City of Brass, rub the hand of this rider and he will turn round
and presently stop. Then take the direction whereto he faceth and
fare fearless, for it will bring thee, without hardship, to the
city aforesaid.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased to say her permitted say.

116 Koran xxiv 39.
The word “Saráb” (mirage) is found in Isaiah (xxxv. 7)
where the passage should be rendered “And the mirage (sharab)
shall become a lake” (not, “and the parched ground
shall become a pool”). The Hindus prettily call it
“Mrigatrishná” = the thirst of the deer.

119 i.e.
“from Shám (Syria) to (the land of) Adnan,” ancestor of
the Naturalized Arabs that is, to Arabia.

120 Koran lii. 21.
“Every man is given in pledge for that which he shall have
wrought.”

121 There is a
constant clerical confusion in the texts between “Arar”
(Juniperus Oxycedrus used by the Breeks for the images of their
gods) and “Marmar” marble or alabaster, in the Talmud
“Marmora” = marble. evidently from {Greek letters} =
brilliant, the brilliant stone.

When it was the Five Hundred and Seventieth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
Emir Musa rubbed the horseman’s hand he revolved like the
dazzling lightning, and stopped facing in a direction other than
that wherein they were journeying. So they took the road to which
he pointed (which was the right way) and, finding it a beaten
track, fared on through their days and nights till they had covered
a wide tract of country. Then they came upon a pillar of black
stone like a furnace chimney wherein was one sunken up to his
armpits. He had two great wings and four arms, two of them like the
arms of the sons of Adam and other two as they were lion’s
paws, with claws of iron, and he was black and tall and frightful
of aspect, with hair like horses’ tails and eyes like blazing
coals, slit upright in his face. Moreover, he had in the middle of
his forehead a third eye, as it were that of a lynx, from which
flew sparks of fire, and he cried out saying, “Glory to my
Lord, who hath adjudged unto me this grievous torment and sore
punishment until the Day of Doom!” When the folk saw him,
they lost their reason for affright and turned to flee; so the Emir
Musa asked the Shaykh Abd al-Samad, “What is this?”;
and he answered, “I know not.” Whereupon quoth Musa,
“Draw near and question him of his condition; haply he will
discover to thee his case.” “Allah assain thee, Emir!
Indeed, I am afraid of him;” replied the Shaykh; but the Emir
rejoined, saying, “Fear not; he is hindered from thee and
from all others by that wherein he is.” So Abd al-Samad drew
near to the pillar and said to him which was therein, “O
creature, what is thy name and what art thou and how camest thou
here in this fashion?” “I am an Ifrit of the
Jinn,” replied he, “by name Dáhish, son of
Al-A’amash,122 and am confined here by the All-might,
prisoned here by the Providence and punished by the judgement of
Allah, till it pleases Him, to whom belong Might and Majesty, to
release me.” Then said Musa, “Ask him why he is in
durance of this column?” So the Shaykh asked him of this, and
the Ifrit replied, saying, “Verily my tale is wondrous and my
case marvellous, and it is this. One of the sons of Iblis had an
idol of red carnelian, whereof I was guardian, and there served it
a King of the Kings of the sea, a Prince of puissant power and prow
of prowess, over-ruling a thousand thousand warriors of the Jann
who smote with swords before him and answered his summons in time
of need. All these were under my commandment and obeyed my behest,
being each and every rebels against Solomon, son of David, on whom
be peace! And I used to enter the belly of the idol and thence bid
and forbid them. Now this King’s daughter loved the idol and
was frequent in prostration to it and assiduous in its service; and
she was the fairest woman of her day, accomplished in beauty and
loveliness, elegance and grace. She was described unto Solomon and
he sent to her father, saying, ‘Give me thy daughter to wife
and break shine idol of carnelian and testify saying, There is no
god but the God and Solomon is the Prophet of Allah!’ an thou
do this, our due shall be thy due and thy debt shall be our debt,
but, if thou refuse, make ready to answer the summons of the Lord
and don thy grave-gear, for I will come upon thee with an
irresistible host, which shall fill the waste places of earth and
make thee as yesterday that is passed away and hath no return for
aye.’ When this message reached the King, he waxed insolent
and rebellious, pride-full and contumacious and he cried to his
Wazirs, ‘What say ye of this? Know ye that Solomon son of
David hath sent requiring me to give him my daughter to wife, and
break my idol of carnelian and enter his faith!’ And they
replied, ‘O mighty King, how shall Solomon do thus with thee?
Even could he come at thee in the midst of this vast ocean, he
could not prevail against thee, for the Marids of the Jann will
fight on thy side and thou wilt ask succour of shine idol whom thou
servest, and he will help thee and give thee victory over him. So
thou wouldst do well to consult on this matter thy Lord,’
(meaning the idol aforesaid) ‘and hear what he saith. If he
say, Fight him, fight him, and if not, not.’ So the King went
in without stay or delay to his idol and offered up sacrifices and
slaughtered victims; after which he fell down before him, prostrate
and weeping, and repeated these verses,

‘O my Lord, well I weet thy puissant hand:
Sulaymán would break
thee and see thee bann’d.
O my Lord, to crave succour here I stand
Command and I bow to thy high command!’

Then I” (continued the Ifrit addressing the Shaykh and
those about him), “of my ignorance and want of wit and
recklessness of the commandment of Solomon and lack of knowledge
anent his power, entered the belly of the idol and made answer as
follows.

‘As for me, of him I feel naught affright,
For my lore and my
wisdom are infinite:
If he wish for warfare I’ll show him fight
And out of his body
I’ll tear his sprite!’

When the King heard my boastful reply, he hardened his heart and
resolved to wage war upon the Prophet and to offer him battle;
wherefore he beat the messenger with a grievous beating and
returned a foul answer to Solomon, threatening him and saying,
‘Of a truth, thy soul hath suggested to thee a vain thing;
dost thou menace me with mendacious words? But gird thyself for
battle; for, an thou come not to me, I will assuredly come to
thee.’ So the messenger returned to Solomon and told him all
that had passed and whatso had befallen him, which when the Prophet
heard, he raged like Doomsday and addressed himself to the fray and
levied armies of men and Jann and birds and reptiles. He commanded
his Wazir Al–Dimiryát, King of the Jann, to gather together
the Marids of the Jinn from all parts, and he collected for him six
hundred thousand thousand of devils.123 Moreover, by his order, his Wazir
Ásaf bin Barkhiyá levied him an army of men, to the number of a
thousand thousand or more. These all he furnished with arms and
armour and mounting, with his host, upon his carpet, took flight
through air, while the beasts fared under him and the birds flew
overhead, till he lighted down on the island of the refractory King
and encompassed it about, filling earth with his
hosts.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased saying her permitted say.

122 These Ifritical
names are chosed for their bizarrerie. “Al-Dáhish” =
the Amazed; and “Al-A’amash” = one with weak eyes
always watering.

123 The Arabs have
no word for million; so Messer Marco Miglione could not have
learned it from them. On the other hand the Hindus have more
quadrillions than modern Europe.

When it was the Five Hundred and Seventy-first Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Ifrit
continued, “So when Solomon the prophet (with whom be peace!)
lighted down with his host on the island he sent to our King,
saying, ‘Behold, I am come: defend thy life against that
which is fallen upon thee, or else make thy submission to me and
confess my apostleship and give me thy daughter to lawful wife and
break thine idol and worship the one God, the alone Worshipful; and
testify, thou and shine, and say, ‘There is no God but the
God, and Solomon is the Apostle of Allah!124 This if thou do, thou
shalt have pardon and peace; but if not, it will avail thee nothing
to fortify thyself in this island, for Allah (extolled and exalted
be He!) hath bidden the wind obey me; so I will bid it bear me to
thee on my carpet and make thee a warning and an example to deter
others.’ But the King made answer to his messenger, saying,
‘It may not on any wise be as he requireth of me; so tell him
I come forth to him,’ With this reply the messenger returned
to Solomon, who thereupon gathered together all the Jinn that were
under his hand, to the number of a thousand thousand, and added to
them other than they of Marids and Satans from the islands of the
sea and the tops of the mountains and, drawing them up on parade,
opened his armouries and distributed to them arms and armour. Then
the Prophet drew out his host in battle array, dividing the beasts
into two bodies, one on the right wing of the men and the other on
the left, and bidding them tear the enemies’ horses in
sunder. Furthermore, he ordered the birds which were in the island
to hover over their heads and, whenas the assault should be made,
that they should swoop down and tear out the foe’s eyes with
their beaks and buffet their faces with their wings; and they
answered, saying, ‘We hear and we obey Allah and thee, O
Prophet of Allah!’ Then Solomon seated himself on a throne of
alabaster, studded with precious stones and plated with red gold;
and, commanding the wind to bear him aloft, set his Wazir Asaf bin
Barkhiya125 and the kings of mankind on his right
and his Wazir Al–Dimiryat and the kings of the Jinn on his
left, arraying the beasts and vipers and serpents in the van.
Thereupon they all set on us together, and we gave them battle two
days over a vast plain; but, on the third day, disaster befel us,
and the judgment of Allah the Most High was executed upon us. Now
the first to charge upon them were I and my troops, and I said to
my companions, ‘Abide in your places, whilst I sally forth to
them and provoke Al–Dimiryat to combat singular.’ And
behold, he came forth to the duello as he were a vast mountain,
with his fires flaming and his smoke spireing, and shot at me a
falling star of fire; but I swerved from it and it missed me. Then
I cast at him in my turn, a flame of fire, and smote him; but his
shaft126
overcame my fire and he cried out at me so terrible a cry that
meseemed the skies were fallen flat upon me, and the mountains
trembled at his voice. Then he commanded his hosts to charge;
accordingly they rushed on us and we rushed on them, each crying
out upon other, and battle reared its crest rising in volumes and
smoke ascending in columns and hearts well nigh cleaving. The birds
and the flying Jinn fought in the air and the beasts and men and
the foot-faring Jann in the dust and I fought with Al-Dimiryat,
till I was aweary and he not less so. At last, I grew weak and
turned to flee from him, whereupon my companions and tribesmen
likewise took to flight and my hosts were put to the rout, and
Solomon cried out, saying, ‘Take yonder furious tyrant, the
accursed, the infamous!’ Then man fell upon man and Jinn upon
Jinn and the armies of the Prophet charged down upon us, with the
wild beasts and lions on their right hand and on their left,
rending our horses and tearing our men; whilst the birds hovered
over-head in air pecking out our eyes with their claws and beaks
and beating our faces with their wings, and the serpents struck us
with their fangs, till the most of our folk lay prone upon the face
of the earth, like the trunks of date-trees. Thus defeat befel our
King and we became a spoil unto Solomon. As to me, I fled from
before Al–Dimiryat, but he followed me three months’
journey, till I fell down for weariness and he overtook me, and
pouncing upon me, made me prisoner. Quoth I, ‘By the virtue
of Him who hath exalted thee and abased me, spare me and bring me
into the presence of Solomon, on whom be peace!’ So he
carried me before Solomon, who received me after the foulest
fashion and bade bring this pillar and hollow it out. Then he set
me herein and chained me and sealed me with his signet-ring, and
Al-Dimiryat bore me to this place wherein thou seest me. Moreover,
he charged a great angel to guard me, and this pillar is my prison
until Judgment-day.” Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased to say her permitted say.

124 This formula,
according to Moslems, would begin with the beginning “There
is no iláh but Allah and Adam is the Apostle (rasúl = one sent, a
messenger, not nabí = prophet) of Allah.” And so on with
Noah, Moses, David (not Solomon as a rule) and Jesus, to
Mohammed.

125 This son of
Barachia has been noticed before. The text embroiders the Koranic
chapter No. xxvii.

126 The Bresl.
Edit. (vi. 371) reads “Samm-hu”=his poison, prob. a
clerical error for “Sahmhu”=his shaft. It was a duel
with the “Shiháb” or falling stars, the meteors which
are popularly supposed, I have said, to be the arrows shot by the
angels against devils and evil spirits when they approach too near
Heaven in order to overhear divine secrets.

When it was the Five Hundred and Seventy-second Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
Jinni who was prisoned in the pillar had told them his tale, from
first to last, the folk marvelled at his story and at the
frightfulness of his favour, and the Emir Musa said, “There
is no God but the God! Soothly was Solomon gifted with a mighty
dominion.” Then said the Shaykh Abd al-Samad to the Jinni,
“Ho there! I would fain ask thee of a thing, whereof do thou
inform us.” “Ask what thou wilt,” answered the
Ifrit Dahish and the Shaykh said, “Are there hereabouts any
of the Ifrits imprisoned in bottles of brass from the time of
Solomon (on whom be peace!)?” “Yes,” replied the
Jinni; “there be such in the sea of al-Karkar127 on the
shores whereof dwell a people of the lineage of Noah (on whom be
peace!); for their country was not reached by the Deluge and they
are cut off there from the other sons of Adam.” Quoth Abd
al-Samad, “And which is the way to the City of Brass and the
place wherein are the cucurbites of Solomon, and what distance
lieth between us and it?” Quoth the Ifrit, “It is near
at hand,” and directed them in the way thither. So they left
him and fared forward till there appeared to them afar off a great
blackness and therein two fires facing each other, and the Emir
Musa asked the Shaykh, “What is yonder vast blackness and its
twin fires?”; and the guide answered, “Rejoice O Emir,
for this is the City of Brass, as it is described in the Book of
Hidden Treasures which I have by me. Its walls are of black stone
and it hath two towers of Andalusian brass,128 which appear to the
beholder in the distance as they were twin fires, and hence is it
named the City of Brass.” Then they fared on without ceasing
till they drew near the city and behold, it was as it were a piece
of a mountain or a mass of iron cast in a mould and impenetrable
for the height of its walls and bulwarks; while nothing could be
more beautiful than its buildings and its ordinance. So they
dismounted down and sought for an entrance, but saw none neither
found any trace of opening in the walls, albeit there were
five-and-twenty portals to the city, but none of them was visible
from without. Then quoth the Emir, “O Shaykh, I see to this
city no sign of any gate;” and quoth he, “O Emir, thus
is it described in my Book of Hidden Treasures; it hath
five-and-twenty portals; but none thereof may be opened save from
within the city.” Asked Musa, “ And how shall we do to
enter the city and view its wonders?” and Talib son of Sahl,
his Wazir, answered, “Allah assain the Emir! let us rest here
two or three days and, God willing, we will make shift to come
within the walls.” Then said Musa to one of his men,
“Mount thy camel and ride round about the city, so haply thou
may light upon a gate or a place somewhat lower than this fronting
us, or Inshallah! a breach whereby we can enter.” Accordingly
he mounted his beast, taking water and victuals with him, and rode
round the city two days and two nights, without drawing rein to
rest, but found the wall thereof as it were one block, without
breach or way of ingress; and on the third day, he came again in
sight of his companions, dazed and amazed at what he had seen of
the extent and loftiness of the place, and said, “O Emir, the
easiest place of access is this where you have alighted.”
Then Musa took Talib and Abd al-Samad and ascended the highest hill
which overlooked the city. When they reached the top, they beheld
beneath them a city, never saw eyes a greater or a goodlier, with
dwelling-places and mansions of towering height, and palaces and
pavilions and domes gleaming gloriously bright and sconces and
bulwarks of strength infinite; and its streams were a-flowing and
flowers a-blowing and fruits a glowing. It was a city with gates
impregnable; but void and still, without a voice or a cheering
inhabitant. The owl hooted in its quarters; the bird skimmed
circling over its squares and the raven croaked in its great
thoroughfares weeping and bewailing the dwellers who erst made it
their dwelling.129 The Emir stood awhile, marvelling and
sorrowing for the desolation of the city and saying, Glory to Him
whom nor ages nor changes nor times can blight, Him who created all
things of His Might!” Presently, he chanced to look aside and
caught sight of seven tablets of white marble afar off. So he drew
near them and finding inscriptions graven thereon, called the
Shaykh and bade him read these. Accordingly he came forward and,
examining the inscriptions, found that they contained matter of
admonition and warning and instances and restraint to those of
understanding. On the first tablet was inscribed, in the ancient
Greek character: “O son of Adam, how heedless art thou of
that which is before thee! Verily, thy years and months and days
have diverted thee therefrom. Knowest thou not that the cup of
death is filled for thy bane which in a little while to the dregs
thou shalt drain? Look to thy doom ere thou enter thy tomb. Where
be the Kings who held dominion over the lands and abased
Allah’s servants and built these palaces and had armies under
their commands? By Allah, the Destroyer of delights and the Severer
of societies and the Devastator of dwelling-places came down upon
them and transported them from the spaciousness of their palaces to
the staitness of their burial-places.” And at the foot of the
tablet were written the following verses,

“Where are the Kings earth-peopling, where are they?
The built
and peopled left they e’er and aye!
They’re tombed yet pledged to actions past away
And after death
upon them came decay.
Where are their troops? They failed to ward and guard!
Where are the wealth and hoards in treasuries lay?
Th’ Empyrean’s Lord surprised them with one word,
Nor wealth
nor refuge could their doom delay!”

When the Emir heard this, he cried out and the tears ran down
his cheeks and he exclaimed, “By Allah, from the world
abstaining is the wisest course and the sole assaining!” And
he called for pen-case and paper and wrote down what was graven on
the first tablet. Then he drew near the second tablet and found
these words graven thereon, “O son of Adam, what hath seduced
thee from the service of the Ancient of Days and made thee forget
that one day thou must defray the debt of death? Wottest thou not
that it is a transient dwelling wherein for none there is abiding;
and yet thou taketh thought unto the world and cleaves” fast
thereto? Where be the kings who Irak peopled and the four quarters
of the globe possessed? Where be they who abode in Ispahan and the
land of Khorasan? The voice of the Summoner of Death summoned them
and they answered him, and the Herald of Destruction hailed them
and they replied, Here are we! Verily, that which they builded and
fortified profited them naught; neither did what they had gathered
and provided avail for their defence.” And at the foot of the
tablet were graven the following verses,

Where be the men who built and fortified
High places never man
their like espied?
In fear of Fate they levied troops and hosts,
Availing naught when came the time and tide,
Where be the Kisrás homed in strongest walls?
As though they ne’er had been from home they
tried!”

The Emir Musa wept and exclaimed, “By Allah, we are indeed
created for a grave matter!” Then he copied the inscription
and passed on to the third tablet,—And Shahrazad perceived
the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

128 Andalusian =
Spanish, the Vandal-land, a term accepted by the Moslem
invader.

129 This fine
description will remind the traveller of the old Haurani towns
deserted since the sixth century, which a silly writer miscalled
the “Giant Cities of Bashan.” I have never seen
anything weirder than a moonlight night in one of these strong
places whose masonry is perfect as when first built, the snowy
light pouring on the jet-black basalt and the breeze sighing and
the jackal wailing in the desert around.

When it was the Five Hundred and Seventy-third Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Emir
Musa passed on to the third tablet, whereon was written, “O
son of Adam, the things of this world thou lovest and prizest and
the hest of thy Lord thou spurnest and despisest. All the days of
thy life pass by and thou art content thus to aby. Make ready thy
viaticum against the day appointed for thee to see and prepare to
answer the Lord of every creature that be!” And at the foot
were written these verses,

“Where is the wight who peopled in the past
Hind land and Sind;
and there the tyrant played?
Who Zanj130 and Habash bound beneath his yoke,
And Nubia curbed and low its puissance laid.
Look not for news of what is in his grave.
Ah, he is far who can thy vision aid!
The stroke of death fell on him sharp and sure;
Nor saved him palace, nor the lands he swayed.”

At this Musa wept with sore weeping and, going on to the fourth
tablet, he read inscribed thereon, “O son of Adam, how long
shall thy Lord bear with thee and thou every day sunken in the sea
of thy folly? Hath it then been stablished unto thee that some day
thou shalt not die? O son of Adam, let not the deceits of thy days
and nights and times and hours delude thee with their delights; but
remember that death lieth ready for thee ambushing, fain on thy
shoulders to spring, nor doth a day pass but he morneth with thee
in the morning and nighteth with thee by night. Beware, then, of
his onslaught and make provision there-against. As was with me, so
it is with thee; thou wastest thy whole life and squanderest the
joys in which thy days are rife. Hearken, therefore, to my words
and put thy trust in the Lord of Lords; for in the world there is
no stability; it is but as a spider’s web to thee.” And
at the foot of the tablet were written these couplets,

“Where is the man who did those labours ply
And based and built
and reared these walls on high?
Where be the castles’ lords? Who therein dwelt
Fared forth and
left them in decay to lie.
All are entombed, in pledge against the day
When every sin shall show to every eye.
None but the Lord Most High endurance hath,
Whose Might and Majesty shall never die.”

When the Emir read this, he swooned away and presently coming to
himself marvelled exceedingly and wrote it down. Then he drew near
the fifth tablet and behold, thereon was graven, “O son of
Adam, what is it that distracteth thee from obedience of thy
Creator and the Author of thy being, Him who reared thee whenas
thou west a little one, and fed thee whenas thou west full-grown?
Thou art ungrateful for His bounty, albeit He watcheth over thee
with His favours, letting down the curtain of His protection over
thee. Needs must there be for thee an hour bitterer than aloes and
hotter than live coals. Provide thee, therefore, against it; for
who shall sweeten its gall or quench its fires? Bethink thee who
forewent thee of peoples and heroes and take warning by them, ere
thou perish.” And at the foot of the tablet were graven these
couplets,

“Where be the Earth-kings who from where they
‘bode,
Sped and to grave yards with their hoardings yode:
Erst on their mounting-days there hadst beheld
Hosts that concealed the ground whereon they rode:
How many a king they humbled in their day!
How many a host they
led and laid on load!
But from th’ Empyrean’s Lord in haste there came
One word, and
joy waxed grief ere morning glowed.”

The Emir marvelled at this and wrote it down; after which he
passed on to the sixth tablet and behold, was inscribed thereon,
“O son of Adam, think not that safety will endure for ever
and aye, seeing that death is sealed to thy head alway. Where be
thy fathers, where be thy brethren, where thy friends and dear
ones? They have all gone to the dust of the tombs and presented
themselves before the Glorious, the Forgiving, as if they had never
eaten nor drunken, and they are a pledge for that which they have
earned. So look to thyself, ere thy tomb come upon thee.” And
at the foot of the tablet were these couplets,

“Where be the Kings who ruled the Franks of old?
Where be the
King who peopled Tingis-wold131?
Their works are written in a book which He,
The One, th’ All-
father shall as witness hold.”

At this the Emir Musa marvelled and wrote it down, saying,
“There is no god but the God! Indeed, how goodly were these
folk!” Then he went up to the seventh tablet and behold,
thereon was written, “Glory to Him who fore-ordaineth death
to all He createth, the Living One, who dieth not! O son of Adam,
let not thy days and their delights delude thee, neither shine
hours and the delices of their time, and know that death to thee
cometh and upon thy shoulder sitteth. Beware, then, of his assault
and make ready for his onslaught. As it was with me, so it is with
thee; thou wastest the sweet of thy life and the joyance of shine
hours. Give ear, then, to my rede and put thy trust in the Lord of
Lords and know that in the world is no stability, but it is as it
were a spider’s web to thee and all that is therein shall die
and cease to be. Where is he who laid the foundation of
Amid132
and builded it and builded Fárikín 133 and exalted it? Where be the
peoples of the strong places? Whenas them they had inhabited, after
their might into the tombs they descended. They have been carried
off by death and we shall in like manner be afflicted by doom. None
abideth save Allah the Most High, for He is Allah the Forgiving
One.” The Emir Musa wept and copied all this, and indeed the
world was belittled in his eyes. Then he descended the hill and
rejoined his host, with whom he passed the rest of tile day,
casting about for a means of access to the city. And he said to his
Wazir Talib bin Sahl and to the chief officers about him,
“How shall we contrive to enter this city and view its
marvels?: haply we shall find therein wherewithal to win the favour
of the Commander of the Faithful.” “Allah prolong the
Emir’s fortune!” replied Talib, “let us make a
ladder and mount the wall therewith, so peradventure we may come at
the gate from within.” Quoth the Emir, “This is what
occurred to my thought also, and admirable is the advice!”
Then he called for carpenters and blacksmiths and bade them fashion
wood and build a ladder plated and banded with iron. So they made a
strong ladder and many men wrought at it a whole month. Then all
the company laid hold of it and set it up against the wall, and it
reached the top as truly as if it had been built for it before that
time. The Emir marvelled and said, “The blessing of Allah be
upon you. It seems as though ye had taken the measure of the mure,
so excellent is your work.” Then said he to his men,
“Which of you will mount the ladder and walk along the wall
and cast about for a way of descending into the city, so to see how
the case stands and let us know how we may open the gate?”
Whereupon quoth one of them, “I will go up, O Emir, and
descend and open to you”; and Musa answered, saying,
“Go and the blessing of Allah go with thee!” So the man
mounted the ladder; but, when he came to the top of the wall, he
stood up and gazed fixedly down into the city, then clapped his
hands and crying out, at the top of his voice, “By Allah,
thou art fair!” cast himself down into the place, and Musa
cried, “By Allah, he is a dead man!” But another came
up to him and said, “O Emir, this was a madman and doubtless
his madness got the better of him and destroyed him. I will go up
and open the gate to you, if it be the will of Allah the Most
High.” “Go up,” replied Musa, “and Allah be
with thee! But beware lest thou lose thy head, even as did thy
comrade.” Then the man mounted the ladder, but no sooner had
he reached the top of the wall than he laughed aloud, saying,
“Well done! well done!”; and clapping palms cast
himself down into the city and died forthright. When the Emir saw
this, he said, “An such be the action of a reasonable man,
what is that of the madman? If all our men do on this wise, we
shall have none left and shall fail of our errand and that of the
Commander of the Faithful. Get ye ready for the march: verily we
have no concern with this city.” But a third one of the
company said, “Haply another may be steadier than
they.” So a third mounted the wall and a fourth and a fifth
and all cried out and cast themselves down, even as did the first,
nor did they leave to do thus, till a dozen had perished in like
fashion. Then the Shaykh Abd al-Samad came forward and heartened
himself and said, “This affair is reserved to none other than
myself; for the experienced is not like the inexperienced.”
Quoth the Emir, “Indeed thou shalt not do that nor will I
have thee go up: an thou perish, we shall all be cut off to the
last man since thou art our guide.” But he answered, saying,
“Peradventure, that which we seek may be accomplished at my
hands, by the grace of God Most High!” So the folk all agreed
to let him mount the ladder, and he arose and heartening himself,
said, “In the name of Allah, the Compassionating, the
Compassionate!” and mounted the ladder, calling on the name
of the Lord and reciting the Verses of Safety.134 When he reached the top
of the wall, he clapped his hands and gazed fixedly down into the
city; whereupon the folk below cried out to him with one accord,
saying “O Shaykh Abd al-Samad, for the Lord’s sake,
cast not thyself down!”; and they added, “Verily we are
Allah’s and unto Him we are returning! If the Shaykh fall, we
are dead men one and all.” Then he laughed beyond all measure
and sat a long hour, reciting the names of Allah Almighty and
repeating the Verses of Safety; then he rose arid cried out at the
top of his voice, saying, O Emir, have no fear; no hurt shall
betide you, for Allah (to whom belong Might and Majesty!) hath
averted from me the wiles and malice of Satan, by the blessing of
the words, ‘In the name of Allah the Compassionating the
Compassionate!’” Asked Musa, “What didst thou
see, O Shaykh?”; and Abd al-Samad answered, “I saw ten
maidens, as they were Houris of Heaven calling to me with their
hands”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased to say her permitted say.

130
“Zanj,” I have said, is the Arab. form of the Persian
“Zang-bar” (=Black-land), our Zanzibar. Those who would
know more of the etymology will consult my “Zanzibar,”
etc., chaps. i.

When it was the Five Hundred and Seventy-fourth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Shaykh
Abd al-Samad answered, “I saw ten maidens like Houris of
Heaven,135 and they calling and signing, 136 ‘Come
hither to us’; and meseemed there was below me a lake of
water. So I thought to throw myself down, when behold, I espied my
twelve companions lying dead; so I restrained myself and recited
somewhat of Allah’s Book, whereupon He dispelled from me the
damsels’ witchlike wiles and malicious guiles and they
disappeared. And doubtless this was an enchantment devised by the
people of the city, to repel any who should seek to gaze upon or to
enter the place. And it hath succeeded in slaying our
companions.” Then he walked on along the wall, till he came
to the two towers of brass aforesaid and saw therein two gates of
gold, without pad locks or visible means of opening. Hereat he
paused as long as Allah pleased137 and gazed about him awhile, till he
espied in the middle of one of the gates, a horseman of brass with
hand outstretched as if pointing, and in his palm was somewhat
written. So he went up to it and read these words, “O thou
who comest to this place, an thou wouldst enter turn the pin in my
navel twelve times and the gate will open.” Accordingly, he
examined the horseman and finding in his navel a pin of gold,
firm-set and fast fixed, he turned it twelve times, whereupon the
horseman revolved like the blinding lightning and the gate swung
open with a noise like thunder. He entered and found himself in a
long passage,138 which brought him down some steps into
a guard-room furnished with goodly wooden benches, whereon sat men
dead, over whose heads hung fine shields and keen blades and bent
bows and shafts ready notched. Thence, he came to the main gate of
the city; and, finding it secured with iron bars and curiously
wrought locks and bolts and chains and other fastenings of wood and
metal, said to himself, “Belike the keys are with yonder dead
folk.” So he turned back to the guard-room and seeing amongst
the dead an old man seated upon a high wooden bench, who seemed the
chiefest of them, said in his mind, “Who knows but they are
with this Shaykh? Doubtless he was the warder of the city and these
others were under his hand.” So he went up to him and lifting
his gown, behold, the keys were hanging to his girdle; whereat he
joyed with exceeding joy and was like to fly for gladness. Then he
took them and going up to the portal, undid the padlocks and drew
back the bolts and bars, whereupon the great leaves flew open with
a crash like the pealing thunder by reason of its greatness and
terribleness. At this he cried out saying, “Allaho
Akbar—God is most great!” And the folk without answered
him with the same words, rejoicing and thanking him for his deed.
The Emir Musa also was delighted at the Shaykh’s safety and
the opening of the city-gate, and the troops all pressed forward to
enter; but Musa cried out to them, saying, “O folk, if we all
go in at once we shall not be safe from some ill-chance which may
betide us. Let half enter and other half tarry without.” So
he pushed forwards with half his men, bearing their weapons of war,
and finding their comrades lying dead, they buried them; and they
saw the doorkeepers and eunuchs and chamberlains and officers
reclining on couches of silk and all were corpses. Then they fared
on till they came to the chief market-place, full of lofty
buildings whereof none overpassed the others, and found all its
shops open, with the scales hung out and the brazen vessels ordered
and the caravanserais full of all manner goods; and they beheld the
merchants sitting on the shop-boards dead, with shrivelled skin and
rotted bones, a warning to those who can take warning; and here
they saw four separate markets all replete with wealth. Then they
left the great bazar and went on till they came to the silk market,
where they found silks and brocades, orfrayed with red gold and
diapered with white silver upon all manner of colours, and the
owners lying dead upon mats of scented goats’ leather, and
looking as if they would speak; after which they traversed the
market-street of pearls and rubies and other jewels and came to
that of the schroffs and money-changers, whom they saw sitting dead
upon carpets of raw silk and dyed stuffs in shops full of gold and
silver. Thence they passed to the perfumers’ bazar where they
found the shops filled with drugs of all kinds and bladders of musk
and ambergris and Nadd-scent and camphor and other perfumes, in
vessels of ivory and ebony and Khalanj-wood and Andalusian copper,
the which is equal in value to gold; and various kinds of rattan
and Indian cane; but the shopkeepers all lay dead nor was there
with them aught of food. And hard by this drug-market they came
upon a palace, imposingly edified and magnificently decorated; so
they entered and found therein banners displayed and drawn sword
blades and strung bows and bucklers hanging by chains of gold and
silver and helmets gilded with red gold. In the vestibules stood
benches of ivory, plated with glittering gold and covered with
silken stuffs, whereon lay men, whose skin had dried up on their
bones; the fool had deemed them sleeping; but, for lack of food,
they had perished and tasted the cup of death. Now when the Emir
Musa saw this, he stood still, glorifying Allah the Most High and
hallowing Him and contemplating the beauty of the palace and the
massiveness of its masonry and fair perfection of its ordinance,
for it was builded after the goodliest and stablest fashion and the
most part of its adornment was of green139 lapis-lazuli, and on the
inner door, which stood open, were written in characters of gold
and ultramarine, these couplets,

“Consider thou, O man, what these places to thee
showed
And be
upon thy guard ere thou travel the same road:
And prepare thee good provision some day may serve thy turn
For
each dweller in the house needs must yede wi’ those who
yode
Consider how this people their palaces adorned
And in dust have
been pledged for the seed of acts they sowed
They built but their building availed them not, and hoards
Nor
saved their lives nor day of Destiny forslowed:
How often did they hope for what things were undecreed.
And passed unto their tombs before Hope the bounty showed
And from high and awful state all a sudden they were sent
To the straitness of the grave and oh! base is their abode:
Then came to them a Crier after burial and cried,
What booted thrones or crowns or the gold to you bestowed:
Where now are gone the faces hid by curtain and by veil,
Whose
charms were told in proverbs, those beauties à-la-mode?
The tombs aloud reply to the questioners and cry,
‘Death’s
canker and decay those rosy cheeks corrode’
Long time they ate and drank, but their joyaunce had a term,
And the eater eke was eaten, and was eaten by the worm.”

When the Emir read this, he wept, till he was like to swoon away
— And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
her permitted say.

135 These were the
“Brides of the Treasure,” alluded to in the story of
Hasan of Bassorah and elsewhere.

138 Arab.
“Dihlíz” from the Persian. This is the long dark
passage which leads to the inner or main gate of an Eastern city,
and which is built up before a siege. It is usually furnished with
Mastabah-benches of wood and masonry, and forms a favourite lounge
in hot weather. Hence Lot and Moses sat and stood in the gate, and
here man speaks with his enemies.

139 The names of
colours are as loosely used by the Arabs as by the Classics of
Europe; for instance, a light grey is called a “blue or a
green horse.” Much nonsense has been written upon the colours
in Homer by men who imagine that the semi-civilised determine tints
as we do. They see them but they do not name them, having no
occasion for the words. As I have noticed, however, the Arabs have
a complete terminology for the varieties of horse-hues. In our day
we have witnessed the birth of colours, named by the dozen, because
required by women’s dress.

When it was the Five Hundred ante Seventy-fifth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Emir
wept till he was like to swoon away, and bade write down the
verses, after which he passed on into the inner palace and came to
a vast hall, at each of whose four corners stood a pavilion lofty
and spacious, washed with gold and silver and painted in various
colours. In the heart of the hall was a great jetting-fountain of
alabaster, surmounted by a canopy of brocade, and in each pavilion
was a sitting-place and each place had its richly-wrought fountain
and tank paved with marble and streams flowing in channels along
the floor and meeting in a great and grand cistern of many-coloured
marbles. Quoth the Emir to the Shaykh Abd al-Samad, “Come let
us visit yonder pavilion!” So they entered the first and
found it full of gold and silver and pearls and jacinths and other
precious stones and metals, besides chests filled with brocades,
red and yellow and white. Then they repaired to the second
pavilion, and, opening a closet there, found it full of arms and
armour, such as gilded helmets and Davidean140 hauberks and Hindi swords
and Arabian spears and Chorasmian141 maces and other gear of fight and
fray. Thence they passed to the third pavilion, wherein they saw
closets padlocked and covered with curtains wrought with all manner
of embroidery. They opened one of these and found it full of
weapons curiously adorned with open work and with gold and silver
damascene and jewels. Then they entered the fourth pavilion, and
opening one of the closets there, beheld in it great store of
eating and drinking vessels of gold and silver, with platters of
crystal and goblets set with fine pearls and cups of carnelian and
so forth. So they all fell to taking that which suited their tastes
and each of the soldiers carried off what he could. When they left
the pavilions, they saw in the midst of the palace a door of
teak-wood marquetried with ivory and ebony and plated with
glittering gold, over which hung a silken curtain purfled with all
manner of embroideries; and on this door were locks of white
silver, that opened by artifice without a key. The Shaykh Abd
al-Samad went valiantly up thereto and by the aid of his knowledge
and skill opened the locks, whereupon the door admitted them into a
corridor paved with marble and hung with veil-like142 tapestries embroidered
with figures of all manner beasts and birds, whose bodies were of
red gold and white silver and their eyes of pearls and rubies,
amazing all who looked upon them. Passing onwards they came to a
saloon builded all of polished marble, inlaid with jewels, which
seemed to the beholder as though the floor were flowing
water143
and whoso walked thereon slipped. The Emir bade the Shaykh strew
somewhat upon it, that they might walk over it; which being done,
they made shift to fare forwards till they came to a great domed
pavilion of stone, gilded with red gold and crowned with a cupola
of alabaster, about which were set lattice-windows carved and
jewelled with rods of emerald,144 beyond the competence of any King.
Under this dome was a canopy of brocede, reposing upon pillars of
red gold and wrought with figures of birds whose feet were of
smaragd, and beneath each bird was a network of fresh-hued pearls.
The canopy was spread above a jetting fountain of ivory and
carnelian, plated with glittering gold and thereby stood a couch
set with pearls and rubies and other jewels and beside the couch a
pillar of gold. On the capital of the column stood a bird fashioned
of red rubies and holding in his bill a pearl which shone like a
star; and on the couch lay a damsel, as she were the lucident sun,
eyes never saw a fairer. She wore a tight-fitting body-robe of fine
pearls, with a crown of red gold on her head, filleted with gems,
and on her forehead were two great jewels, whose light was as the
light of the sun. On her breast she wore a jewelled amulet, filled
with musk and ambergris and worth the empire of the Caesars; and
around her neck hung a collar of rubies and great pearls, hollowed
and filled with odoriferous musk And it seemed as if she gazed on
them to the right and to the left.—And Shahrazad perceived
the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

141 Arab.
“Khwárazm,” the land of the Chorasmioi, who are
mentioned by Herodotus (iii. 93) and a host of classical
geographers. They place it in Sogdiana (hod. Sughd) and it
corresponds with the Khiva country.

142 Arab.
“Burka’,” usually applied to a woman’s
face-veil and hence to the covering of the Ka’abah, which is
the “Bride of Meccah.”

143 Alluding to the
trick played upon Bilkís by Solomon who had heard that her legs
were hairy like those of an ass: he laid down a pavement of glass
over flowing water in which fish were swimming and thus she raised
her skirts as she approached him and he saw that the report was
true. Hence, as I have said, the depilatory.

144 I understand
the curiously carved windows cut in arabesque-work of marble.
(India) or basalt (the Haurán) and provided with small panes of
glass set in emeralds where tin would be used by the vulgar.